Carolyn Rowlett

I don't see why not, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask the 504 team if this could be added as an accommodation. However, I don't know if the school will agree. When you say he was "tested," was he tested for academic achievement or just behavior? You might reach out and ask for additional testing - something else might be going on such as dyscalculia. Also, depending on how low his scores are in math, he might qualify for an IEP, which would give him specialized instruction in math - hopefully in a manner that works for him.

This is a hard one. If going up the chain of command in your school district (all the way to the school board and superintendent) doesn't work, I believe your only recourse at that point in filing an OCR complaint (but speak with your state department of education to see if they have any suggestions). But OCR complaints, even when you win, are not very helpful. Also, both of these tactics (going up the chain of command and filing a complaint) will likely make things even worse for your granddaughter in terms of retaliation. No, they're not supposed to retaliate and it's illegal to do so. But they're also supposed to implement a 504 Plan, and they're not. The law is pretty clear that you can't discriminate against a student due to their disability, but if you don't have a government agency that will back you up and keep retaliation from happening, they're not much good.

Wow. Just wow. This is totally unacceptable - as you know. Since you state "unsuccessful in implementing the 504 from last year," I'm assuming there is a 504 in place currently. If so, it has to be implemented. Period. There is nothing that says "the teacher has to get to know her." When schools say things like that, ask them where is says that and what they're basing that on. Your granddaughter has disabilities for which she was given 504 accommodations - getting to know the teacher is not a prerequisite for implementation. Now the teacher might have questions about the accommodations and how best to implement them with your child, which is fine. What state are you in? I've never heard of a state not allowing meetings with teachers. They can be present at a 504 meeting, I assume? Maybe you need to ask for a 504 meeting and invite the teacher so discussions can be had about implementation of the 504. I also don't understand when you say "there has to be failure and an intervention in a specific subject before any action will be taken." Because it sounds like action was taken, in that you have a 504 in place. The problem is implementation. If the school continues not to implement the 504, I would go up the chain of command - 504 coordinator, then that person's supervisor, etc. If you get no where, your daughter may have to file an OCR complaint for discrimination against a disabled child (not providing her with agreed upon accommodations). She might also call the state department of education to see if they can provide any suggestions or recourse.

You do not have to do anything with respect to a PWN, unless you do not receive one when it is required in your state. A parent concern letter would probably not warrant a PWN, but a request for an evaluation would require either a PWN denying the request or scheduling a Review of Existing Data (RED) meeting to determine if an evaluation is needed. If after the RED meeting an evaluation is denied, a PWN would be required. If approved, you would also receive one, along with an attached consent to evaluate form. The parent does not need to send the form or request one. But in some cases school districts fail to send PWN's when they should. In those instances, the parent should reach out and request one.

My first question would be "Are school A and school B in the same school district"? For now, I will assume different school districts. With respect to the first school district, some of what they did may or may not be ok. Was a meeting held to discuss removing from services? Did that meeting include a review of existing data and did that data support removing the child from services? Were all goals met? Did she receive a PWN regarding the removal of services and a reason? Depending on the answers to these questions, a state complaint might be warranted. After the meeting and/or removal of services, did someone reach out to the 504 coordinator to start the process for a 504 Plan (that team would be different from the IEP team)? Having to be on a 504 for a year before getting an IEP is DEFINITELY NOT A THING. Both can be pursued simultaneously. If school B hasn't started the process for a 504, she needs to contact the 504 coordinator and keep going up the chain of command. With respect to the IEP, yes, she should definitely email a request for an IEP evaluation citing reasons and data for thinking her child needs one. The school then agrees or denies. If denied, make sure she receives a PWN with reasons. Also, at that point she can ask for an IEE.

I personally don't have a lot of faith in OCR following through with anything to make sure that changes are made, even if they agree with your position. I think it would be much more effective to file a state complaint based on procedural violations of not holding an IEP meeting when requested by parent, not having a meeting (or even an email chain) to discuss removal of accommodations, etc. You can pursue both simultaneously.

If the BCBA observations do not prove helpful in coming up with the root causes, I would request an IEE before filing a state complaint or for due process. In a due process proceeding, the state probably won't "explain to school district" what an FBA is. Many administrative hearing officers that handle due process cases don't even know what one is.

Then the modifications are why he is receiving a lower grade - not the accommodations. Therefore, it is not a federal civil rights violation.

When you say director, so you mean director of special education? I would gather data from professionals that without the sibling, the child will need additional resources provided on the bus (so why not just let the sibling ride along?) and that that without the sibling there would be school avoidance, which would lead to not providing FAPE. And get it specifically written into the IEP as an accommodation.

Very good question. It would depend on whether the private school receives any type of federal funding, such as free/reduced lunch. That would make them subject to civil rights rules. But sometimes even with federal funding (such as with school vouchers), private schools are given much autonomy in their curriculum, grading, etc., and may be exempt from federal discrimination laws. Many states have also added language to their education savings account laws specifically stating that acceptance of such monies does not limit the school's autonomy. Remember, unless your private school is under contract with a public or charter school, you also give up your federal right to FAPE and least restrictive environment. Having said all that, this is a very murky area, and I didn't go down the entire rabbit hole.

Call your state department of education (special education department). A quick phone call could let you if you're being told the correct information (one school district does the evals and another does the IEP). If that is, in fact, the case in your state, I agree with JSD above that you need to do more follow up and loop in more people before filing a state complaint.

Emily is correct that it would depend on your state standards, but I doubt there is any requirement for how many days or hours reading must be taught. The standard will likely be what reading proficiencies are required for each grade, which will in turn dictate how much time school districts spend on reading. So Emily is also correct that if your grandson is below grade level in reading, this is something more appropriately addressed in the IEP. Is specific learning disability one of the areas in which he was found eligible? If so, is he receiving special education minutes in reading? If not, why not? Was he not considered far enough behind? Regardless, I would not want the extra reading time to be an accommodation - he needs specialized instruction. An accommodation of extra reading time does not ensure the appropriate instruction is being given.

1. Teacher provided notes and ability to record lectures so that he does not have to copy from the board or take notes. 2. If he does have to take notes, allow extra time. 3. Allow extra time for any handwritten assignment or test. 4. Allow the use of speech-to-text to help with getting his thoughts down on paper. It is usually easier for students with dysgraphia to verbalize their thoughts rather than physically writing or typing. 5. Do not count off on assignments or tests for poor handwriting or spelling. 6. Modify tests to reduce amount of handwriting or typing. Allow speech-to-text, provide oral exams, or use multiple choice to test mastery of subject. 7. Allow oral reports over written reports.

My answer is going with the assumption that you voluntarily placed your child in the private school and it was not an out-of-district placement agreed upon by an IEP team in your home district. If that is not the case, please reach out again because my answer would likely be different. There may also be a difference if your child was found eligible prior to or after placement in the private school. When a child is enrolled in a private school, it is the responsibility of the district in which the private school is located to conduct evaluations, determining eligibility, and developing a plan for special education services. Also, it will most likely not be called an IEP, but rather a "services plan." You do not have the same rights to special education in a private school setting that you have in a public school. Funds are allocated to public school districts for providing special education services in private schools in their district, but they have a lot of flexibility in how they spend those funds. Any meeting you have with the school district to develop the plan should include a representative from the private school. I would suggest reaching out to your state department of education for specific guidelines in your state.

I am not in NYC, but just in case no one from there responds, I'll try to respond in a general sense. I assume that "check-in's" is an accommodation already written into the IEP? If so and if the teachers are not following this accommodation, you need to inform the case manager, process coordinator, spec ed director, IEP team, etc. to make sure this happens. You also might want to tighten up the language regarding this accommodation. For students with ADHD, I like to suggest check-in's for "initiation of, staying on, and completion of task." As far as getting all teachers on the same page in terms of homework, that could be more difficult. I would request a team meeting and try to get as many of his teachers as possible there (although technically, the school district only has to bring one). Then discuss your issues with homework (always putting it in terms of his ADHD) as a team and see what you can come up with as a solution. For the teachers that are not present at the meeting, ask the case manager or process coordinator to inform them of what was decided. It would be best to have it detailed in the IEP document itself, but the team may not want to dictate to teachers how they handle their homework. There is also the fact that teachers will change at semester. But even if you can get some kind of informal agreement in place (follow up with an email to the team as to what was decided upon during the meeting), that would be better than the chaos that appears to be happening currently. I do think "notification of incomplete assignments upon due date" would be reasonable to put into an IEP.

The first thing to do before anything else is to confirm that going to School B is in the IEP. If so, she has a much stronger argument - the school district has to follow the IEP, which includes transportation to an out-of-home-school placement. (It doesn't matter that the mom "preferred" the other school or it was "her choice to fight." If it's in the IEP, it was decided upon by the team and must be implemented as written. She needs to let go of the "this was my choice" mentality and focus on what is in the IEP.) Then the argument is that just because she opted not to have transportation at one time does not mean she cannot now ask for transportation based on change of circumstances and her inability to take her child to the school. You would hope this request for a transportation change to the IEP could be done by way of an email to the team, but under this more complicated situation, she may need to request an IEP meeting. I can't imagine the IEP team would deny the change since otherwise they are not providing FAPE. If placement is at School B, the district has to provide transportation to get the student there. If it's not in the IEP, that would be a problem. I can't imagine placing a special education student in a school other than the home school and not documenting this in the IEP, but if this is in fact the case, she still needs to request an IEP meeting to figure this out. If School B is not in the IEP and the grade bands do not include student in School B, at a minimum the team needs to figure out how services will now be delivered due to this change in location.

We are going to need more facts for this. What do you mean by "full support" versus "itinerary or supplementary support?" I can respond in a general sense... You need data to show the student needs the support you're asking for. What do you mean by "records" show serious struggle? Has there been a school evaluation? That is what you need to refer to in order to show a need. Point to struggles/deficiencies shown by the school evaluation and other data (grades, teacher comments, etc.) and make sure it is documented in the present levels. If it's there, it needs to be addressed with accommodations. Ask the team: "Why aren't you providing the support that the present levels show the student needs?" If the school evaluation/present levels don't show a need, you can disagree with the school evaluation and request an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at school expense. Unfortunately, school districts do not have to follow the recommendations in an IEE, but they do need to consider them.

I'm going to assume the "beginning of year assessment" you refer to in which he had high scores is a standardized assessment that all students take. If so, I would want an academic re-evaluation in the area of decoding and reading fluency before I removed any goals. JSD24 is correct that a standardized test is not going to catch his deficiencies if he's gifted and masking. A re-evaluation that included nonsense words would be a much indicator of his true reading level.

Accommodations can be removed if the data from a re-evaluation shows there is no longer a need. But you are correct that it would be a team decision. After a re-evaluation is done, there should have been a meeting with the team to go over the results of the re-evaluation with you and propose changes to the IEP based on those results. If after discussion and full parental participation at the meeting the team decided to remove accommodations and you did not agreed with that decision, they should then send a Prior Written Notice to that effect. If none of this occurred, you need to ask for it. If after the proper procedures outlined above are followed and you are unhappy with the outcome, you can state your disagreement with the re-evaluation and ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE). Once those evaluation results are in, you would then be entitled to another meeting. Unfortunately, the team does not have to concur with or follow recommendations from an IEE, but they do have to consider them.

Are you a school district employee? If so, what is your position?

It really doesn't matter in the eyes of the school district whether he's retired, never practiced special education law, etc. He's an attorney and like you, the school district has a right to be informed and to bring who they want (within limits, of course, but bringing their attorney because a parent has an attorney with them is reasonable). They may be treating the situation differently because you caught them doing something wrong and now they're scared. But that doesn't mean they don't have a right to do it. Just because they didn't assert this right in the past doesn't mean they can't now. How is your husband being treated differently and how are they threatening his job? The facts you presented in your first post were not enough, but if there are more facts that support these two accusation, you might need to consider action. But unless it's very serious, in the best interest of both your son and your husband, you need to seriously think about taking further action. I know it sucks; I get it. But it could be worse. And you'd be fighting Goliath, which is a difficult, exhausting, and expensive battle. Unless there is a real concern that your husband will loose his job or his work environment is unsustainable, your energies are best spent in getting your son what he is entitled to.

My advice is to not do anything. First, because I don't think it would accomplish anything The one thing you have to focus on during this procedure is "will this action benefit my child?" If not, then it is probably not worth pursuing and your energy would be best spent elsewhere. It sounds like you got what you wanted (compensatory services) - I wouldn't "poke the bear" unnecessarily. Second, let's say regardless of whether it helps your child, you still what to pursue something because of your husband. Perfectly understandable. However, I don't think this would accomplish anything in that regard, either. Was there a harm (which a claim of retaliation requires)? Your child got what he needed. And unless your husband was demoted, experienced a salary decrease, or is being treated differently in some way (provable and that causes harm) by the school district as a direct result of bringing his father-in-law to the meeting, there is no retaliation. You would only accomplish ticking off the school district again, which wouldn't do your son or your husband any good. Third, when an attorney attends a meeting, regardless of the relationship to the child (and regardless of retired status - I'm guessing he doesn't leave his attorney hat at the door when he discusses this situation with you), it's hard to distinguish between the two. Since the Department of Education has highly recommended that parents inform school districts if they are bringing an attorney, if you were to pursue this issue, it would likely be found that the school district was within their right to tell your husband that they need knowledge of this so that they can bring their own counsel. Fourth, when you say "ethics complaint," do you mean with the school district itself? That will be very hard to do against the superintendent, especially with the reasons I've outlined above. And a complaint via another avenue such as OCR, etc., will not go very far with these facts. Sorry that this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's probably what you need to hear in order to keep actual retaliation toward your son from occurring. Even actual, harmful retaliation is something that is very hard to prove, so you just need to avoid pushing the school district to that point if at all possible.

I would advise first calling your state department of education (special education department) and asking what they think. You don't want to start a fight or pay for legal expenses if you don't have back up from the state. States have been very lenient toward school districts during this special education teacher shortage. One thing I would ask for personally is if the offer could be used DURING the school day. School districts contract with outside providers all the time and provide services during the school day - sometimes via Zoom. See if you could work something out. We do not provide legal advise on this site, but a couple of things jumped out at me. First, they are referring to it as an "offer." Does this mean if the parent can't arrange for services to be provided outside of school that the school district is off the hook because the parent "rejected" the offer? That doesn't sound right. (Not to mention that transportation should probably be "offered," as well.) Second, you make a good point about other parents who don't have the resources or aren't savvy enough to understand this "offer." Is the school district going to follow up with all parents to confirm that minutes were actually provided? After all, the school district is the entity that owes the child the minutes and has to show proof that they were provided. (Another question to ask the state.) As far as the school district's failure to respond to your communication, first, I would not call. That leaves no trail of your attempts. Second, when you do not receive a timely response from the person you emailed, go up the chain of command - principal, special education director, superintendent, school board. You might also consider attending a school board meeting and asking your questions - preferable getting other parents similarly situated to attend.

Thank you for the update. Although maybe not completely what you wanted, definitely a step in the right direction. Glad you found an effective advocate that would fight for your child.

I am not familiar with OCR complaints or the process, so I may be wrong, but my understanding is that they can mediate regarding the discrimination, but may not be able to help with what you really need in terms of getting the school district to follow the terms of the IEP. For that you may need to file a state complaint (I would highly suggest that in this case of blatant procedural violations) or another due process complaint.